Discussion Board

I had a great time today. Ended up ordering black-eyed peas, steamed rice, and a salad. We split a piece of vegan chocolate cake for dessert--surely high-fat, but a celebration.

Fulenn

Sounds tasty. It was nice of her to make that suggestion.

Funny, I just cooked black-eyed peas yesterday. I like them but keep forgetting the skins clog up the pressure cooker valve. Grrr.

That's way cool. My daughter says we are doing something for it later so we don't have to deal with the Mother's day rush. I think she just didn't want to deal with it twice in the same day. laugh. My son always forgets things like that.

Hi, I'm trying to catch up on some journals, and yours is full of some great ideas and recipe suggestions! Take care, LauraA

Chile, I don't have that black-eyed pea in the pressure cooker problem. How full do you fill your cooker when you cook beans? I learned to use mine at 6,000 feet up, but it still cooks the same here-just faster.

Rosey, I know what you mean. I still have my own mother's Christmas present here--I'm afraid to mail it since it is breakable and I will be driving to see her in a few weeks, soooo....

Laura, nice to see you! I'm glad you found something interesting in my journal. I don't put a lot of recipes up, but sometimes I just really like something.

I was really hungry yesterday. So I sat down and started going through what I ate--rice, cucumbers, water, baby carrots, sushi roll--I forgot to eat breakfast! That would explain why I was STARVING in the afternoon. Usually missing a meal does not cause this kind of problem, not for the past several months, so it was a surprise. I'm really glad that I was able to make good choices. I ended up going into a grocery store and buying a bag of baby carrots. I ate the entire bag in less than 8 miles--that was in Austin during rush hour, so it took a little while.

Fulenn

A couple of times this past week, I had soup over rice for lunch. It basically was a liquid-based Farley's Bowl--tons of green and yellow veggies in soup broth, some diced potato cubes and black beans in the soup, steamed rice on the bottom. It was a nice change for me. I still like to eat an orange with lunch.

My second daughter had her first driving lesson with me yesterday. She did a nice job! We went to an empty parking lot, learned to adjust mirrors, seat, etc., read through parts of the owners manual, and then practiced starting and stopping with just a little touch of the accelerator. We're going again today. Very fun! Can't believe she is old enough to be sitting in my car, though. She and my oldest driver think they will get to drive my jeep whenever they want to, but no, we will be letting them drive the minivan.

Fulenn

Nothing exciting here, just breakfast. Am having a bowl of rice and mango. I have remembered to eat in the morning since the other day when I got so hungry in the afternoon. The funny thing is that it doesn't take a lot of food to prevent that, just a normal meal.

Off to work!

Fulenn

Really wanting to eat Persian food tonight, so I am making eggplant and tomato casserole. Well, more of a stew I guess. Anyway, I peeled eggplant and have it soaking in water for a few minutes, then will put it in the pressure cooker with chopped garlic, pepper, salt, and maybe onion powder. Add diced tomatoes and pressure for 8 minutes. Should be really good over rice!

Fulenn

The eggplant and tomato was really good! I ended up adding some onion powder to it and really needed to have used more eggplant, but I used what I had.

I just made the mock mayo that was posted in the recipes section. It used cashew butter and tofu. Right now it tastes more miracle whippy than like mayo, but I know that some of these fake condiments taste much better after sitting overnight, so we'll see how it is tomorrow. I also have to keep remembering that these are condiments in their own right and that everything is NOT a substitute for the SAD food. I don't have to do that quite as often as I used to, though.

We are having a special meal tomorrow: grilled portabella mushrooms, watermelon/pineapple/mango salad, baked sweet potatoes, and rice paper sandwich wraps (thanks for the idea, Nordgirl!). It should be yummy!

Fulenn

Your meal for tomorrow sounds good! I've never had Persian food, so glad you enjoyed it. Have a good night

Thanks, boots! I had leftovers for breakfast and it was soo good.

I decided to make saffron rice with sour cherries for our meal today, which has morphed into dinner because the rice is still cooking. sigh. My DH got the wrong kind of cherries--sweet not sour. But I decided to go ahead anyway. The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter it says to help form a crust on the bottom of the dish. However my rice cooker will form a crust with just plain rice if I leave it a few minutes after it is finished, so I used NO butter, oil, margarine, etc. and am just letting it cook a little longer. The recipes all say to put a LOT of sugar in the drained juice from the cherries and make a syrup to pour back over the rice when it is cooked, so I didn't use any sugar and am just reducing the juice. The saffron makes it smell great, so we'll see how it all turns out.

Speaking of turning out, if you use the rice paper wraps, don't do what I did on the first one and forget to soak the rice paper! It was pretty funny. My oldest daughter walked into the kitchen when I was putting the veggies on it and said something like, "Aren't you supposed to soak those just like when you make spring rolls?" Duh. We had a good laugh over that one.

Hope those of you in the United States remembered those who gave their lives for us today.

Fulenn

I had a good food today. Rice with cherries for breakfast, bean chili with kale for lunch, watermelon and fresh pineapple for a snack, and whole grain pasta with diced tomatoes for dinner. Good day.

I have been eating a lot of rice lately for my main starch, whereas before I was eating oatmeal for breakfasts and potatoes for my other meals. I just needed a change. I was avoiding eating pasta very much, but the whole grain on occasion seems to be fine. Am keeping a close eye on it, though.

Fulenn

I am making the sausages from VeganDad that Dissolution posted in his journal. I was all ready to add the liquids and roll in foil when I realized that we are out of foil. So DH is picking some up at the store on his way home.

Had watermelon for breakfast and leftover pasta and tomatoes for lunch.

Fulenn

The sausages turned out nicely, DD's friend ate one and said he felt like it was a "real meal." haha Today we had a luncheon at work; usually there isn't anything I can eat, but today they remembered and one of the organizers brought an oil-free rice and veggie salad that I ate with some vegan beans. It was really good!

Fulenn

I am still eating the cherry saffron rice for breakfasts--it's really good cold. Lunch today is surprisingly good! I was given several small white patty pan squash and wanted to use them, so I sliced them and put them in the pressure cooker with a sliced onion, 1 vegetable bouillon cube, a tablespoon of fresh garlic, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 bag turnip greens, and a sliced portabella mushroom. Pressure cook for 5 minutes, stir, and serve over brown basmati rice. It's really good! So then I decided to put some of the no-oil Yumm sauce from the food and recipe section on it. Yumm! I changed the recipe a bit on that one: no oil, no almonds (I increased the beans and added some almond extract), less curry powder, but it was really good.

That will be dinner this evening, too.

Fulenn